Four Indians earn postseason baseball honors
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com
FULTON, MS – Four Itawamba Community College baseball players earned postseason honors after the Mississippi Association of Community College and Junior Colleges (MACJC) and National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) released their All-State and All-Region lists on Tuesday.
Sophomore left-handed pitcher Dylan Earnest (Hamilton) earned MACJC All-State First Team and NJCAA All-Region 23 honors in his final season with the Indians.
The Southeastern Louisiana University signee finished the season with a 7-4 record and a sparkling 1.08 ERA with one shutout after allowing 53 hits and striking out 91 while only walking 16 batters in 83.1 innings pitched to go along with his .964 fielding percentage.
Earnest will be nominated for NJCAA All-American honors.
Former NJCAA All-American Ben Hudspeth (Tupelo) was the second ICC baseball player to earn First Team All-State honors.
Defensively, he finished his final season in the red and blue with a 7-4 record and a 2.62 ERA with one shutout after allowing 37 hits and recording 55 strikeouts while walking 20 in 77 innings of work to go along with his .977 fielding percentage as a pitcher and catcher.
At the plate, the Mississippi State University signee batted .228 with a .286 on-base percentage and .333 slugging percentage. He drove in 9 runs on 13 hits with 3 doubles and 1 home run.
Sophomore utility player and University of North Alabama signee Jake Smith (Columbus) and freshman third baseman Ethan Gill (Pontotoc) garnered Second Team All-State honors.
Smith was second on the team with his .322 batting average and finished the season with .389 on-base and .430 slugging percentages. He drove in 13 runs on a team-best 48 hits with a team-high 13 doubles and 1 home run while stealing a team-high 6 bases. On the mound, Smith finished the season with a 2-1 record and a 2.75 ERA after allowing 12 hits and striking out 18 in 19.2 innings to go along with his .986 fielding percentage.
Gill had a team-high .328 batting average with a team-best 30 RBI on 43 hits with 9 doubles, 2 triples and a team-best 5 home runs to go along with his .857 fielding percentage.
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